A little help

Hello parents,

It's about day 3 since we've had our baby and milk production is steadily increasing. However, it seems like after each pump the breast is still swollen with lots of milk and the breast feels very hard. In such a case, should we keep expressing more milk

(more often or longer each time)? If so, wouldn't this stimulate the breast to produce more... which leads to more swelling? Also, what might help with this pain, we're using the cold cabbage technique now.

Any experience here would help thanks?

I have 4 children who were all breastfed and found that the more you feed the more milk your body produces - generally.  Day 3 is the worst day.  It's usually when your milk "comes in" and then settles down a bit.  Cabbage leaves work well to alleviate some of the pain.  You do need to keep feeding a bit to also alleviate some pain because you don't want to end up with mastitus (or however you spell it).  That can cause many more problems.  All I can say is keep on feeding.  I have found a website with heaps of information on it which may help.

Good luck and happy feeding!!

http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/index.html